Tech and BS Inspection

 Off to tech and BS Inspection.  Life is good.

Earlier too tech, and all is well.  Jay and John are looking looking over the cars and are happy with the car safety items.

Trouble. BS, judge does not like the Turbo on the Miata. -15 Laps. Because we are a team both cars are listed as A with -15 laps.

Then there was a second trouble. The Timing Control Inspector was really unhappy about the Z number 137. To confess, I did change the number in the database. I had little hope of the Z to make the tack, so I changed the registration to the D. Thus they had the car number as 227 and thus failed the car.

My bad. I forgot about that. After some brake cleaner on the number, hand developed stencil, some black spray paint, and we were able to change the badging. So this weekend we will run as 227.

All is well.  Off to practice.

Landing at the Track

Good Morning all!

We left for the track close the 9:30 projected times.  With clear traffic we arrived at the track with plenty of time to setup.

For this race they have everyone more spread out then normal.  So we found a nice spot at the end of the line and grand stands.

Two cars ready to go!

Sears Pointless 2021

Onto the next race. This coming weekend April 3-4, the 24-Hour Lemons - Sears Pointless Race is occurring at Sonoma Raceway. Work for this race has been ongoing since the last February race. Several work sessions have occurred to figure out the Z electrical troubles. Sparky has spent several days coming through the wires to figure out the trouble.

For the first weekend wires in the Z were traced, and sensor checked. Three wires were found exposed and had low power to at least one. So, like all good Sparky's, the volt present seem weird (stead 5 volts), so testing the line seem like a good idea. Yea, after that all ECU combination stopped. Whoops. It i now believed these wires ran the controls to the AC unit (no longer on the car), were covered by tape, and bundled away. After the many races the tape appears to been removed, and likely did a small short, doing enough damage to prevent the ECU allowing a starting, but still communicating.

Ok,

So, the search for the next ECU started. After a thorough search, it was determined the current VQ35 motor in the car is a 2006. So, like a good solider, I search and could find a new 2006 Manual Transmission (MT) ECU. Great, Sparky then arrived two weeks ago, and after another day of work, we got no further in starting the car. Harrumph!

After some head scratching, Sparky decided to take all the ECU back to his house, build a test bed and see if he could determine the trouble with the ECU and why it will not let the car start. 

On a parallel track, we did determine in the process of getting the car to run the first time we had used a 2003 MT ECU. So, I search E-Bay can could fine 1 2004 MT that is similar spec to that first generation ECU platform.  That ECU was schedule to arrived Monday the week of the race. Being so close to the Race, we turned to the D to get ready. Torch and I then jump on the D last weekend it is now for another run. So here we go.

On Wednesday, morning I finally received the new ECU. Well what could go wrong? I plug it into the Z and:

Ok, after a quick talk with Sparky, a change of plans. This evening we had the team over to prep and pack for the race. Sparky was kind enough to come over, clean up and rebundle the wires, terminate the loose ends, and away we go. After finishing the repair, we loaded the Z, and we are posed to hit the track tomorrow.

Here We Go!!!